Review Detail

If You Go Walking

Kids Nonfiction 315

How to Answer Your Own Questions

January 03, 2026 (Updated: June 12, 2026)

Overall rating

3.7

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Learning Value

3.0

A little boy and his dog are going walking, but instead of collecting pebbles or wildflowers, they are collecting questions. As they traverse different areas of wilderness, different questions arise. Sometimes, it's easy to find answers by looking around, and the book provides some of these. How do mushrooms show up so suddenly? Most of the mushroom is already spread out under the ground! But there are many other questions that the boy collects on his journey. He wonders about why leaves turn color and how birds stay warm in the winter, and has a lot of questions about snow. While the answers can sometimes be found through observation, sometimes he must take his questions home to investigate the answers. An author's note at the end gives some tips for research as well as the author's reasoning behind not providing all of the answers to the questions on the pages, making this somewhat different from other nonfiction books.

Good Points

The collage illustration style is especially effective, and I loved how fabric was used for clothing and real feathers make the birds look delightfully fluffy! The trees and natural elements are rendered well in paper. The dog is particularly delighful, as he frolicks through the outdoors.

While I rather wanted the answers to some of the questions right in the book, I understand the author's purpose in wanting young readers to try to find the answers on their own. The tips about observing the environment carefully and trying to find one's own answers are so important, but it is a different way to structure a nonfiction book. This makes the book more suited to setting up the idea of outdoor exploration rather than looking up facts.

I'm a big fan of walking outside, so plan on sharing this with my grandson when he is old enough to walk and pick up sticks, along with Uzu's Peggy Goes For a Walk, Gigot's The World In Our Backyard, Storey Publishing's Backpack Explorer Walks series, and this author's Outside You Notice, illustrated by Andrea Blinick.